Studio Blog

Hi writers,

I'm the editor of Travels.com, and I'm pleased to announce a new section of the Demand Studios forums geared specificially to travel writers. Here you can feel free to answer questions, talk with other writers, or just share your experiences and expertise. From time to time, we will also be adding updates and other important information for the site, so make sure to check up on it every once in a while.

Thanks so much for all your hard work, and I look forward to interacting with you in the forums.

Anna Roth
Travels.com Editor

Hello Writers -

We’ve heard your fears, doubts and concerns. As a writer, we know you often question a CE’s true motives or reasoning. We know it sometimes feels as if the CEs are playing for the other team. As a lead copy curator for Demand Studios—and a copy editor myself—I’d like to take a minute to shed light on the CE process and hopefully diffuse some of your anxieties. 

If you think a CE is “out to get you,” you’re not alone … but think again. Contrary to popular belief, CEs are not the enemy. First, know that our editors are highly trained professionals. They come from rigorous editing backgrounds and have spent years with the top newspapers and book publishers in the country. We reject half of the applications we receive and half of the editors we test—which means that only 25 percent of the copy editors who apply actually make it through our gates. If they were out to sink writers, they would not be at the top of their field and they certainly wouldn’t make it through our (virtual) doors. So, next time you feel an editor is out to get you, we hope you’ll think twice.

A word on our editorial process: While editors do choose fields of interest so they can edit articles in line with their knowledge, articles are distributed to them randomly. It’s important to recognize that a CE earns the same fee, regardless of whether he approves your piece on the first pass or requests a rewrite and then ultimately approves or rejects the article. So if you think a CE “has it in for you” when he requests a rewrite, please realize that he is actually spending the time to help you improve that article without getting paid any more for doing so. In fact, her overall hourly wage will actually drop because she’s choosing to devote more time to your work.

Look at a rewrite as a learning opportunity. You are working with consummate professionals who are seeking to help you improve your writing—both with the present article and beyond. This back-and-forth collaborative dialogue between the editor and the writer is customary in the publishing world—and it’s a crucial step in ensuring your work is the best it can possibly be before it’s published.

Try not to take a CE’s notes personally or assign a tone to them, which can be hard to assess in email; please recognize that CEs are under immense time constraints. Unlike writers who can write as much or little as they want, when they want, CEs must meet weekly hourly minimums and article quotas. Their rewrite notes may often be direct and perhaps even terse, rather than effusive—and it’s the nature of their job to “get in and get out” of an article, as Richard’s advises. With that said, if a CE’s comments are truly rude and unprofessional, we will take action.

It’s also important to know that CEs will often contact us for a second opinion before rejecting an article. They truly don’t want to reject your work, particularly work that demonstrates skill and effort, and they feel badly about it when they do have to reject an article. Realize that it is not a frivolous click of a button.

Finally, understand that editing is an art, not a science. We can't have 100 percent consistency. New editors—just like writers—make mistakes while acclimating to our system. We hire new CEs weekly so that we can turn around your articles quicker, and we have to allow for their learning curve with patience. Sometimes seasoned editors make mistakes as well; their judgment may slip after hours of work. If an editor sends you an erroneous rewrite request—requesting a URL for a hard copy reference or requiring a photo for an article in which it’s optional—understand that he’s most likely a new editor overwhelmed with our guidelines. Use this as an opportunity to reciprocate; teach him by pointing out his mistake and direct him to the page of our style guide with the proper information. We’re building a team community here, one writer and editor at a time.

Your CE friend,
Eve Lederman

Hi, my name is Julie Henley, the VP of Product for Demand Studios. In an effort to enhance your experience with Demand Studios, our product and development teams work very closely with our editorial and community teams to roll out new features on a weekly basis.

We know you’ve been asking for insight into your ratings, and as a result, we’ve developed the Writer Scorecard. We are extremely excited to announce that we will unveil this new Scorecard tomorrow, July 29.

Below is a preview of the three sections in the new Scorecard:

Article Ratings for Grammar and Research

    * Every article you’ve written since May 2009 has been rated by the copy editor.

    * Once you have submitted at least five articles, we’ll present your average rating in two areas: grammar and research.

    * The average rating not only tells you exactly where you stand but also helps you track your progress over time.


Article Submission Information

    * The second section of the page displays data about the net result of any article submission.

    * We break out the number articles that have been approved (with and without rewrite requests), rejected and flagged for plagiarism.

    * We provide detailed data on the number of rewrite requests you receive.

    * You can now monitor how many rewrite requests are completed and successfully approved versus how many are abandoned.

    * This new feature offers visibility into everything you’ve written.


NOTE: We really encourage our writers to complete rewrite requests. Doing so not only helps keep our CE queues down and streamlines our production process, but it improves your writing capabilities as well.


Productivity

    * The last section allows you to track your productivity by providing reports on your approved articles.

    * You can easily find how many approved articles you have written in any given week since you started writing for Demand Studios.

    * We hope this helps set goals as to what you wish to complete in a week and encourages you to submit a few more articles and add to that weekly paycheck.


Remember, you are the only member of the community who can see your Scorecard. The ratings are provided by CEs on each article, but the CE cannot see your overall averages.
 
As we’ve said, the new Scorecard should make your lives a lot easier. Every step of the way, you now have a clear understanding of exactly where you stand. You can track your progress and if necessary, make adjustments to your writing. We hope you find the information you’ve been asking for from the Scorecard.
 
Please keep the feedback coming, and we will continue to work hard to develop new features and better your success with Demand Studios.

Thanks,
Julie

Hello Writers,

Please note that we have made some minor changes to the Style Guidelines for Travel Review, Product Review and Quick Guides.

Travel Review

 - You may only write one review per location or service, even if there are similar titles in Demand Studios (Review of the Bellagio Hotel, Bellagio Hotel Review).

Product Review

 - You may only write one review per product, even if there are similar titles in Demand Studios (Review of Columbia Hiking Boots, Columbia Hiking Boots Review).

 

Quick Guides

-New information regarding photo guidelines and the photo selection process.

Please reference the above Style Guidelines for more information.

 

Thanks and happy writing!

Hi all –

We have updated the References section in all of the guidelines, so please be sure to check them out. To summarize, we included information outlining the qualifications writers need when writing simple articles that may not render a reference. As we’ve repeatedly said though, even if you have expertise in an area and are the authority on the topic, you still should cite a reference if possible.

Check out the updated guidelines for more information.

Thanks,
Jennifer